The invention concerns, in general, the mounting of mirrors onto motor vehicles and, more particularly, the mounting of side view mirrors onto vehicles having a folding down type front windshield.
Many different motor vehicles have folding down type front windshields. These include boats, automobiles, such as e.g. vans or so-called "jeep" type vehicles, and trucks, among others.
In the past, most `jeep` type vehicles have been designed and manufactured with removable doors. The side view mirrors are mounted onto the vehicle body by tapping additional holes into the hinges which join the front windshield onto the vehicle body and enable its folding down over the vehicle hood. Additional screws are thus needed for mounting the mirror frame with these additional holes, onto the hinge. In many jeep type vehicles, the hinge also serves as the bracket for mounting of the upper door hinge.
Recently, a number of jeep type vehicle models have been designed and manufactured with side view mirrors mounted, instead, on the removable doors. Accordingly, when the doors are removed, the vehicles are no longer equipped with side view mirrors. In this case, the manufacturers and dealers recommend that the side view mirrors be mounted by tapping new holes into the front windshield hinges. A side view mirror is then attached to the vehicle by being screwed into these new holes.
The disadvantage of this method of mounting the side view mirror is that with the arrival of cold weather, when the doors are put back onto the vehicle for a period of many months, the side view mirror that was added at the front windshield hinge must be removed. This leaves new holes in the hinge.